ALBANY — Unemployment in the Capital Region rose to 7 percent of the work force from 6.7 percent a year earlier, even as that work force continued to shrink, the state Labor Department reported Thursday.

Despite a gain of 2,100 private-sector jobs, public employment tumbled by 5,100 jobs, 3,800 of them at the state level. Those job cuts are expected to continue.

“The public numbers are going to continue to drop,” said state labor markets analyst James Ross.

Ross said the decline in the overall work force — at 452,300, it’s at a six-year low — may be partly due to baby boomers retiring. Many had delayed retirement at the start of the recession as the stock market tumble decimated their retirement accounts.

Now, with the markets recovering, Ross said that generation is once again taking retirement.

Boosting their numbers are public workers who are being offered retirement incentives.

In the private sector category, retail trade saw a loss of 3,100 jobs from a year earlier, a 6.5 percent decline.

“Retail trade was still very weak,” Ross said. “If jobs are down, people are going to shop less.”

Professional and business services, a sector that includes technology jobs, was up by 2,400 jobs, to 54,700, over the past year.

In the Capital Region, Saratoga County had the lowest jobless rate, at 6.5 percent of the work force, while Schoharie County had the highest, at 8.3 percent. Albany County posted a rate of 6.9 percent, while Rensselaer County’s unemployment rate was 7.3 percent and Schenectady County’s 7.5 percent.

To the north, 8.8 percent of Warren County’s work force was unemployed, while the rate was 7.3 percent in Washington County.